FindLaw | Legal News & Information
| Ed NBC Wednesday 8 pm/7 central | |||||||||
Reviewed by Joel Zand May 9, 2001 Saving The Present For The Future Ed waxes philosophical about the fate of Stuckeybowl this week. Call it a professional hazard, but like many lawyers, Ed is a bit self-obsessed when it comes to his work. What will others think of his bowling alley when he's no longer around? Where will generations of Stuckeyvillians gather to rent their sweaty bowling shoes and bowl a few games, to add a meaningful existence to their otherwise ordinary lives? If Ed has his way, the community won't need to worry if Stuckeybowl gets designated as a historical landmark. Landmark My Alley The bowling alley lawyer experiences the joys of going before Stuckeyville's city council to get Stuckeybowl landmarked. His application is denied at first, probably due to the fact that Ed is tragically unprepared. He pleads his case unconvincingly at first. "Stuckeybowl, Stuckeyville. Don't tell me that's a coincidence!" He finally wins landmark status for Stuckeybowl after putting together a polished short documentary film about a group of bowlers who have been coming to the bowling alley for more than fifty years just to hang out and have a good time bowling together. The council and viewers are moved to tears by the documentary. Stuckeybowl is now officially a landmark. Classy Action Harry Lackmather, a member of the infamous " Badass Cowboys," is back to his old bowling self again. He claims that his $85 per week pill supply from the local doctor has cured his arthritis. But when Phil Stubbs tries to make good on his crafty promise to get generic medication for his aches and pains instead of the top-dollar drugs, Ed and friends find out that Harry's been had. It turns out Harry's doctor, the sports-car driving Dr. Kendall, has a booming placebo practice, dispensing volumes of sugar pills to patients who claim that they are now healed. Dr. Kendall is a snake-oil salesman in doctor's clothing. He drives a fancy sports car, is always going out to lunch or the tanning salon, but somehow he never seems to be doing any real medical work. That has Harry boiling mad: "I want to sue him so bad till he bleeds through his head." Such sweet words in the ears of every litigator. True to television, however, there's little reality in the "class action" that Ed brings on behalf of Harry and Dr. Kendall's other patients who paid the $85 per week placebo pill price for years. The sugar pills cost him next to nothing. In the real world, this case would have required court certification for class action status, a procedure that usually takes months. Here, it happens almost overnight. The judge would probably have referred Kendall's case to state prosecutors and the appropriate Ohio agency responsible for filing complaints against physicians. Finally, when the court orders decides that Dr. Kendall must give back to Harry and his class action colleagues all the money they paid for sugar pills, that should logically trigger an attorney's fee application by Ed. His clients were the successful litigants, but viewers still don't know quite how Ed gets paid for practicing law.
Long-Term Prospects Carol and Ed are still dancing around their romance that was put on hold earlier this year. When Carol asks him on the roof of Stuckeybowl (viewers know this is a common destination for serious reflection) where they will be decades from now, you just know that the two have some unresolved relationship issues. Will we know where they are going before the season is over? |
|||||||||
|
In a curious role reversal with the show's protagonist, Joel Zand is a New York solo practitioner who left his Midwestern roots behind to work with Findlaw. He has represented New York City landlords, tenants, and folks with pets in pit-bullesque litigation (always representing the underdog, of course). Zand received his J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, and his B.A. from the University of Chicago. |
